Why Windrose has me swearing like a pirate

Debora Pape

29.4.2026

Translation: Katherine Martin

Playing Windrose has given me a taste of the pirate life. The game combines the freedom of the open seas with the relentless difficulty of a survival game.

The sound of cannon fire thunders across the water. A few hundred metres in front of me, I clock an enemy pirate ship firing a volley of shots. Moments later, cannonballs slam into my ship’s already badly damaged hull. Dammit, dammit, dammit! I yank the wheel hard to port, trying to expose as little of the ship’s surface area as possible to my opponent. The enemy ship fires its next broadside. And hits its target. My ship bursts into flames and sinks. Nooo! My brand-new ship! I quit the game, fuming. Then start it up again. I want revenge.

Pirate survival game, Windrose, has me hooked – even though I’m still at the beginning. I love the seafaring vibe, the constant lapping of the waves, the sense of freedom you get when at sea, the gorgeous sunsets and the numerous options for building my own little pirate port town.

If I had to describe Windrose using other games as a reference, I’d say this: imagine the ship controls from Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, mix it with survival and colony-building games like Valheim and Enshrouded, then make it more difficult.

Windrose takes real persistence. I’m confronted with the «You Died» screen more often than I’d like. It’s the only game where you have an easier time repairing a sunken ship on the ocean floor than killing a wild boar in the starting zone.

In this open-world game, also playable in co-op mode, you play as an 18th-century pirate captain. Blackbeard, the self-proclaimed Pirate King, rules the Caribbean Sea with an iron fist. At the start of the game, his men board your ship in search of a mysterious artefact. You get shot, only to wake up alone and half-naked – but alive – on a godforsaken beach. «What happened?» I think to myself. Why am I still alive? How do I get back to my ship and my crew? But these questions are for Future Me.

First things first, I do the things you’re supposed to do in a survival game: gather resources, build myself a shelter, find food and craft better gear. During my first forays into my surroundings, I come across the wild boar I mentioned earlier.

Schooled by the Souls-lite combat system

The fateful encounter starts with me hacking away at the boar with my rusty beginner’s sabre. The animal rams me to the ground with a head butt, killing me. I run from my tent on the beach – which serves as my respawning point – back to where I died in order to retrieve my lost items. The wild boar’s peacefully grazing by my grave. Though thanks to my sabre, it’s health bar’s not quite as full. This time, I don’t even get a chance to strike. As soon as the beast spots me, it sends me back to my tent. It takes me at least five attempts to finally finish off the wild boar.

I have to dodge, parry and run away when necessary – in a nutshell, it’s all stamina management and timing. In the fights that follow, I do my best to perfect those techniques. Luckily, I soon get the chance to upgrade my gear, but I never feel overly powerful at any point. Though that’s because there are usually a whole bunch of enemies to defeat, instead of just one.

To make matters worse, the majority of enemy encounters during my first few hours of play mostly involve close combat. Although my loud-hissing, fuse-burning musket does pack quite the punch, it needs ammunition and gunpowder. At the beginning of the game, however, you can’t make either of those things yourself. Windrose certainly teaches me to enjoy life; if a dodo happens to fly by, I could end up straight back in the spawn tent.

The game also teaches me to pitch a tent before every battle and designate it as a respawn point. However, my progress on learning that lesson has been pretty mediocre. Time and again, I get annoyed at myself for forgetting to set up the tent, as I’m forced to walk miles back to the place where I died, cursing all the way. Only to make the same mistake all over again. Grrrr!

I’m simply no good as a landlubber.

When I see my first ship appear on the beach, I’m overjoyed. I change its generic name to Mary Celeste, which, to my delight, appears on the stern. From this point onwards, I manage to cover longer distances, gliding over the sea in style.

Travelling at sea feels very realistic. If you’re prone to seasickness, you might feel a little queasy. But the water’s calm near the shore. Out on the open sea, towering waves block out the horizon, making me feel like I’m in a nutshell. The bow sends spray flying up as it crashes into the water, the wood creaks and the sails flap. And to top it all off, my crew sings sea shanties, including the ubiquitous What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor? Amazing!

The fact that my ship’s sails are always full, no matter which way the wind’s blowing, doesn’t take away from the joy.

Yes to sea battles …

There isn’t much peace or solitude to be found at sea. Enemy pirate ships are constantly coming into view. Like the wild boars, they rarely show up alone, so I’m easy prey for them initially. On my maiden voyage, I’m caught off guard by a patrol before getting the chance to properly test the Mary Celeste’s steering. Fortunately, sunken ships can be brought back to the surface without using up too many resources.

Upgrading my hull reinforcement and onboard cannons quickly turns the battle in my favour, allowing me to take on several ships by myself. Battles like these are time-consuming, but really fun. The combat system allows you to fire forwards and sideways almost simultaneously. You use the right mouse button to aim the cannons and fire. With the waves rolling in and out and with the time it takes for the cannonballs to reach their target, hitting enemy ships isn’t all that easy. Every successful shot feels like a small victory.

Fortunately, I can summon the Mary Celeste at any time from the beach. However, even with the ship, the journey to where I last died is usually a long one. It’s only worth boarding ships that are likely to yield a substantial haul, such as escorted cargo ships. These earn you a few extra coins. As captain, I prefer to leave dangerous, close-quarters combat to my crew, while I shoot at enemies from the safety of my own deck. Just like the song:

You can use this money to buy blueprints for new types of ship or items for your settlement from merchants in Tortuga and other outposts. In addition, you can buy Naval Tactics (new abilities for your ship), patterns for new armour, new skins and much more. At the moment, there are also six crafter NPCs you can recruit to help you craft items more efficiently. Give them a one-off payment, and they’ll add some life to your little port settlement.

As is typical in survival games, Windrose also gives you ample opportunity to be creative when building a base or even a settlement. To start with, you have sticks and leaves at your disposal. Once you get enough spare change, you can buy knowledge on how to use clay and marble when creating a building. Sometimes, you find new building plans among your loot or come across them when you collect materials you haven’t seen before.

I’ve spruced up my home with decorations, which, just like in Enshrouded, extends your Rested Buff so that you regain stamina more quickly. The best part of this? My settlement’s decoration level applies to the Mary Celeste too. The ship’s a moving element of my home, allowing me to access the Rested Buff, even far away from familiar shores.

Close combat in the game is very challenging. So I think it’s okay to take a more tactical approach instead of going in all guns blazing. Despite getting a handle on the tactics, I still end up effing and blinding sometimes. A clumsy dodge, a botched parry or getting stuck at the wrong time can all cause you to meet a sticky end.

The fact that I keep forgetting to set a respawn point before battles is all the more annoying. As is inadvertently getting caught up in a battle and dying, culminating in a long trek back to my lost belongings. I think it’d be better if going ashore on an island automatically set a respawn point.

Contrast that with the freedom your ship offers you. The feeling of sailing in all weathers, watching beautiful sunrises and swaying along to the rhythm of your crew’s shanties. On that note:

🎶«Heave away, an’ with a will boys, for Tortuga we will steer!»🎵

Windrose was released in early access for PC on 14 April 2026.

Debora Pape

Editor

Debora.Pape@galaxus.de

Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.

---

Background information

Interesting facts about products, behind-the-scenes looks at manufacturers and deep-dives on interesting people.

Show all

These articles might also interest you